AN extremely dry February brought one sixth of the month’s average rainfall, new figures from Jersey Met have shown.
Statistics released this week showed that 12.6 millimetres of rain fell during February, with the wettest day being the 28th, with a 24-hour reading of 4.5mm. The monthly average from 1991 to 2020 is 78.4mm.
Mostly dry conditions have been a feature of Jersey’s weather since the deluge which brought flooding to the Grands Vaux area on 17 January. Jersey Met said there had been 20mm of rain over the six weeks between that date and the start of March.
February was also sunnier than in recent years, with 20 hours more sunshine than the 30-year average figure of 102.6 hours being recorded. It was also warmer than usual, with the average temperature being 7.9°C – 0.9°C higher than the average over the past three decades.
Temperature and rainfall records go back to 1894, with the following year being one of the most extreme on record: February 1895 was the coldest ever, with an average of -1°C, as well as the all-time record low rainfall figure of 2.9mm.
Following a cold snap in December and some heavy rain in January, Jersey Met said the overall readings for winter were close to average for rainfall (286mm compared with the 30-year figure of 294mm) and sunshine (243 hours being four below the average mark). The overall winter temperature of 7.5°C was 0.3°C above the 30-year average mark.
In an updated forecast for this weekend, duty forecaster Rob Plummer said on Friday that showers would be ‘sparse’ yesterday and today, and unlikely to be wintry, with the temperature remaining at around 7°C or 8°C.
He added: ‘From tomorrow night into Monday, we could see more frequent, and potentially heavy, rain showers.
‘There’s a hint that the showers could be more wintry by mid-week, but that seems more likely in central France, around Paris, and it’ll just be rain for us.’
